The Worldwide Smoking Epidemic

DURING the past two decades, use of tobacco has increased worldwide by almost 75%.1In 1986, an estimated 1 billion persons consumed more than 5 trillion cigarettes.2Globally, increasing tobacco use is responsible for almost 2.5 million excessive or premature deaths per year—almost 5% of all deaths.1International tobacco trade and antitobacco activities are of growing significance for the worldwide smoking epidemic. Activities to restrict the use of tobacco in the United States and Canada, as well as in countries in both Oceania and Western Europe, have produced a declining demand for tobacco and tobacco products in these areas of the world.3To maintain and expand markets for their ongoing growth of tobacco leaf and manufactured tobacco products, multinational tobacco conglomerates in the United States, Great Britain, and West Germany, however, have responded by increasingly seeking favorable markets in countries where demand remains or has the